Exciting changes are taking place at the store, located on Gunthorpe Road, as part of the acquisition. These include major improvements to both the indoor and outdoor sales areas, expansion of gardening and seasonal ranges and the creation of new departments including clothing and Scallywags Pets. The Coffee Barn is also being revamped to accommodate a 120 seater restaurant with a full menu of delicious freshly prepared food.

The store, now known as The Barn by Cherry Lane Garden Centres, has transferred all staff over to the QD Group, enabling them to remain in their existing roles.

QD is already well known in Peterborough with a discount store located in the Ortongate Centre on the outskirts of Peterborough. The Barn by Cherry Lane Garden Centres is the 11th garden centre owned by QD Group, who also have another four QD Stores with garden centres.

Mark Care, store manager at The Barn, said: "We are delighted to join the QD family. The QD Group has a great record in running garden centres and we're very excited about this transition, which will create an even better store for our customers to enjoy. We can't wait to unveil our new look and exciting additional departments and product lines."

Nick Rubins, Chief Executive of the QD Group, said: "The acquisition of The Barn is another great landmark in the ongoing growth of QD and the success of our Cherry Lane Garden Centres. We are a family run business and this is a major purchase for our Group. We are very pleased to welcome the team from The Barn and are looking forward to sharing with shoppers our great value, excellent quality and ever-changing spectacular new deals."

With its head office in Norwich, where the first store opened in 1985, QD remains one of the original discount retailers. The company has ambitious growth plans - in 2017, QD opened four new stores at Sudbury, Raunds, Melton Mowbray and Lowestoft.